House: Does a Castmember Leave?

OK, “maybe” isn’t a lot, but it’s not a “no.” So that means it’s probably a “yes.” Right? Right. Either way, thus was the answer from House executive producer Katie Jacobs when asked if a castmember leaves or dies by the season’s end.

“I don’t want to say exactly, because I really want the audience to experience the journey,” Katie tells us. “Maybe” aside, if someone does go, it’s likely just one person. “I think our cast will look pretty much the same next season.”

Katie also dished on the end of the season, on the hooking up of Dr. Gregory House (Hugh Laurie) and Dr. Lisa Cuddy (Lisa Edelstein) and more. Read on…

Adam Taylor/FOX LOVE, PRINCETON-PLAINSBORO STYLE

House & Cuddy: Will the much talked about sex scene be fo real, a dream, a hallucination, or a fantasy sequence? “I can’t say what it’s going to be without spoiling it. But I can say that it’s complicated. I can also say that I am not yet convinced that House can successfully coexist in any deep full love relationship.” Sex aside, Katie adds, “You will see them kiss one more time before the end of the season.” Yay!

Cameron & Chase: Do they get more airtime? “Yes, out of the story we’re telling of the change in the hospital, we spend more time with them and more time with them together.”

Foreteen: Do Dr. Foreman (Omar Epps) and Thirteen (Olivia Wilde) stay together through the season’s end? “Yeah, they do.”

Wilson’s Sex Life: “He’s kind of an easy lay, as it were. He’s an easy relationship guy. He wears his heart on his sleeve. He’s the opposite of House. So I wouldn’t put it past him to wind up in another relationship, but I wouldn’t give that much credence anyway,” says Katie.

SEASONS CHANGE

End of Season: According to Katie, “There will be absolute very low lows and I hope some high highs in the mix of the tone of the end of the season. It’s pretty unpredictable. Something changes in our hospital, and it causes all of our characters to reexamine where they are. You know, when something sort of, you know, a baby is born, different things like that which make everyone look at where they are and take stock.” Our guess was, “A bomb goes off?” She replies with a laugh, “You’re good.”

Next Season: “The beginning of next season might look a little bit different before we get back to our sort of usual House episode. We have to deal with the fallout before we can get back to our regular business.”

NOTABLE UPCOMING EPISODES

“Here Kitty” (March 16): The marvelous Judy Greer tells us about her guest gig in the upcoming episode, “[My character] works at a nursing home and there’s a cat, and whoever’s bed the cat sleeps on dies in the next couple of days. And then one day the cat snuggled up to my character and she totally freaks out and goes to see House…It’s comedic, but there’s a lot of heart to it, too. It made me feel a lot of compassion for people who go through a traumatic event and then they cling to whatever they can to try and make sense of it all, you know?” On working with Hugh Laurie: “I was inspired by him. I wanted to impress him—I wanted him to think I was a real actress.”

“Simple Explanation” (April 6): Meat Loaf (that’s Mr. Loaf to you) guest stars! “It’s just a coincidence that his name is Eddie,” says Katie of the fact that his character in Rocky Horror Picture Show is also named Eddie. “He was so deep and a pleasure to work with. He plays a man on his deathbed who has severe heart disease and is at home and has been nursed for the past six months by a nurse and his wife, played by Colleen Camp, and he’s ready to die. And then all sorts of strange things happen. There’s a twist.”